Land vehicles are tested for crashworthiness by a variety of tests including frontal impacts, side impacts, rear impacts, roll-over and other tests. Full frontal impact tests were previously developed that specified that a vehicle impacts a barrier between the frame rails that extend longitudinally relative to the vehicle. In a full frontal impact test, the frame rails provide the primary support for the vehicle body.
A test promulgated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) simulates small overlap frontal crashes against a rigid barrier. In the proposed test, the vehicle impacts a rigid barrier having a six inch pole-like radius on one corner with a 25% overlap at 40 MPH. The impact is outboard of the frame rails and, as a result, the frame rails do not provide as much resistance to intrusion into the passenger compartment as in the case of impacts between the frame rails. The extent of any intrusions into the passenger compartment are measured at the lower hinge pillar, footrest, left toepan, brake pedal, parking brake pedal, rocker panel, steering column, upper hinge panel, upper dash, and left IP.
One problem with adding deflectors to a vehicle is that the deflectors may interfere with the performance of impact absorption systems such as crush-cans that are used to minimize the effects of a full-frontal impact. In the case of impacts in between the frame rails, crush-cans and/or frame rails are designed to deform in an accordion fashion to maximize impact energy absorption. Deflectors addressing small over-lap impacts can interfere with the accordion deformation of the crush-cans located in front of the frame rails. Modifications of vehicle design to address small over-lap impacts should minimize any effect on other impact modes.
Additional reduction of intrusions in the small overlap rigid barrier (SORB) test results are desired that are simple and cost effective.
This disclosure is directed to solving the above problems and other problems as summarized below.